May Day ~ International Labor Day

In my history class, I was surprised to learn that International Workers’ Day, also known as May Day, actually has its origins here in the United States.

Yeah. I had assumed for a long time that it was a holiday celebrated in communist countries like Cuba or the former Soviet Union. Boy, was I surprised to learn differently.

It was the very dawning of day when the term ‘dignity of labor’ meant something. ~ George E. McNeill

Over 100 years ago, workers had 10 to 16-hour workdays in really unsafe conditions right here in America. People died and were seriously injured on the job, which inspired Upton Sinclair to write The Jungle and our very own local hero Jack London to write The Iron Heel.

And, for this, at the end of the week, he will carry home three dollars to his family, being his pay at the rate of five cents per hour –just about his proper share of the million and three-quarters of children who are now engaged in earning their livings in the United States.
~ Upton Sinclair

It’s no wonder that people wanted to shorten the workday, but it wasn’t until the late 1880’s that organized labor had enough support to demand an eight-hour workday. Let’s just say the employers weren’t too happy about this.

The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions held a convention in Chicago in 1884 and proclaimed that:

eight hours shall constitute a legal day’s labor from and after May 1, 1886.

The next year, the FOTLU was backed by other organizations and soon there were about a quarter million workers in the Chicago area supporting the eight-hour workday.

On May 1, 1886, more than 300,000 workers across the U.S. walked off their jobs in the first May Day celebration. With each day, more and more workers walked off their jobs ~ and it was all done peacefully.

Well, that is until May 3, when violence broke out between the police and strikers. It was horrible, with people being killed and wounded. This is now known as the Haymarket Massacre, and every May Day, tens of thousands of activists join together in solidarity. Taking about Anger Management!

The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are throttling today.
~ Haymarket Monument

It’s hard to believe that people were killed so we could have an eight-hour workday and have Saturday included as part of the weekend. It’s pretty easy to take this for granted. And as always, the good ones go first. See also this post: “Happy Earth Day”.

But each year, on May 1st, people come together so we don’t forget how people fought long and hard for the rights we enjoy today. May Day is an official holiday in 66 countries and unofficially celebrated in many more, but rarely recognized in our country.

However, this year, just a couple of years after Occupy Wall Street and its countless demonstrations by its off-shoots, May Day takes on an added significance as people continue voicing their desire and need for change. I know here in Oakland and San Francisco there are many actions scheduled to take place.